Helena of Briarwood NY

I signed up for this internet based phone company in Oct. 2006 because the company promised to save me money and provide excellent phone landline service. My phone never worked from the start- friends and family members couldn't reach me at my home so we had to use our cells phones all the time.

My husband and I were on the phone with tech support guys numerous times where we were given different kind of explanations for service interruption, echoes (if they phone did work) and audio static. Keep in mind that in order to reach customer care/accnt manager or tech support, we had to use out cell phone after long day at work, stay on hold for hours and then learn the excuses that our internet speed is slow.

Account managers do not take notes or give out confirmation numbers of the complaints or discussions with the customers. We had to repeat ourselves again and again...Being naive, we've changed the internet providers twice in hopes that the phone will finally start working smoothly again. Finally, after 8 months of hell we realized that it's not internet that's causing the problems but simply Vonage service.

On June 20th 2007, I have called Verizon and asked them to switch me. At the same time, I've read reviews of other upset Vonage customers that kept receiving bills even after their phone service was terminated. I decided to call customer care and inform them in advance that I'm switching to Verizon and that I do not want to be Vonage customer ever again! I had to learn that for terminating Vonage service I have to pay $40 + tax as a penalty. This is something that was never discussed by a sales rep when I initially signed up. Nor did I receive any paperwork with a clear statement about rules and regulations of service fee disconnection.

To make matters worse, the account manager discontinued my service AND shut down my phone # completely that I've had for nearly 8 yrs. When Verizon agent called me and informed me that my old ph # is not available anymore, I was in tears and could not believe how stupid the employees at Vonage are.

Bill of Gloucester City NJ

I ordered Vonage phone service for my business. They didn't tell the full story that with my phone system they couldn't accomodate it. So the system arrived on 9/26/07 and was hooked up and never worked. Our previous service (Verizon) was disconnected and the new service kept saying that the # was not in service, and you are supposed to be able to keep your same phone #. It is now a week later. Vonage didn't want to release the phone line so I could go back to Verizon and now they are saying that this can't be accomplished till 10/9/07 which is another 2 weeks. I need to have this corrected sooner. Vonage didn't want to release the line even though they couldn't provide service from the beginning even though I paid in full plus. I have customer accounts they are having a hard time reaching me, and any street customers which I have no way of knowing about aren't reaching me. The main # is 856-456-4297. The secondary # 856-456-4352 and at times there are problems getting in on that. Vonage claims that they wouldn't release the main line due to being owed $39.00. They were sent a check for $101 and say they lost it. Then I had to pay them an additional $39and change because they said they hadn't got their equipment back and so therefore wouldn't release the line. I sent their equipment back last Thursday since none of it worked. They haven't received it as of yet. Lied about the whole service. Vonage told us we only needed the one line charge for the two line systems, and then said we needed to be charged for another line and didn't tell me that these phone lines could only be generated through a computer which wiped out my phones in my shop beside the office phones.

I am losing anywhere from $1000-$1500 or more a day. I have no idea the amount of business I am losing. I put an ad in the paper to give a discount and the ad started running the same time I started with the phone problem. So the ad's a waste of dollars since no one can call in and all they get is a number that isn't in service.